Wallace battling bone spurs
WASHINGTON -- For anyone who watched the Bulls lose to the Lakers on Tuesday and wondered what was wrong with Ben Wallace, here's the answer:
Wallace has been bothered by bone spurs in his left foot and did not dress for Wednesday's game at Washington. The injury had never been discussed publicly, but it's hardly surprising based on Wallace's 5 rebounds and 2 points in 28 minutes against the Lakers.
"It's been bothering me about a week or so," Wallace said. "I think it bothered me last night more than any of the other times. So right now we're going to let it chill out and see if it gets any better.
"I have bone spurs on the top of my feet. It's such-and-such bone and such-and-such bone -- they're rubbing together. They're just hot right now."
Wallace mentioned that he had an MRI exam Wednesday in Washington to make sure it wasn't a stress fracture. Though this condition has bothered Wallace off and on for a few years, he is not ready to consider surgery.
"That's 4-6 weeks," he said. "I don't want to be sitting on the sideline talking to y'all for 4-6 weeks."
On nights like Tuesday, when Wallace didn't get a single rebound in the first half, the veteran center said he can deal with fans complaining that he's not doing enough to earn his $15 million salary.
"They're going to say that regardless, so I'm immune to that," Wallace said. "It's one of those things."
Tyrus turns it up: Not even two weeks ago, Tyrus Thomas went through a four-game stretch in which he didn't play at all twice and logged 13 minutes in the other two contests.
He also was suspended for Friday's victory over New York because of his reaction to getting pushed to the floor by Indiana's Troy Murphy.
Thomas didn't let any of that get him down. In the last three games when he wasn't ejected, the second-year forward averaged 10.7 points and 7.0 rebounds.
"That's just another form of adversity to add to the millions of other things I had to go through in my life," Thomas said of his brief benching. "It's frustrating, like anything. But you can't, as a professional athlete or a competitor, you can't let stuff like that bother you."
Thomas finished with 14 points and 6 rebounds against the Wizards. Most impressive was how he had 8 points and 3 blocks in the fourth quarter, including a pair of midrange jumpers when the game was close.
Bull horns: The Bulls are now 1-5 on the second leg of back-to-back games. … The Wizards got a combined 53 points and 23 rebounds from Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison. The other six guys who played for Washington scored a collective 31 points and shot 29.2 percent.